We’re getting closer to the moment Hyundai
will release its first-ever pickup truck in 2021. Up until recently, we didn’t
quite really know exactly what to expect from the production Santa Cruz, as test prototypes featured an excessive
amount of camouflage. However, earlier this month a photograph of a Santa Cruz
body in white surfaced on the web, giving us the first strong clue at the
design of the production model.
That’s all rendering artists were waiting
for and one of the first illustrations based on said spy photo comes from our
friends at Kolesa. Building on the uncensored image of the Santa Cruz bodywork
as well as previous spy shots, the designer added typical Hyundai design cues
belonging to the brand’s latest ‘Sensuous Sportiness’ language. We believe the result is quite close to
the real thing, though we can’t be 100 percent sure of that until Hyundai
officially unveils of the Santa Cruz.
At the front, the familiar Hyundai cascading
grille extends all the way to the sleek horizontal headlights at the top. The
Santa Cruz features another set of lights lower down in an arrangement inspired
by the Santa Fe. That’s not by chance because the pickup will actually be based
on the same platform as the SUV. Yes, it will be a unibody pickup like the
Honda Ridgeline and not an actual workhorse.
Seen from the side, the Santa Cruz reveals
a classic four-door crew cab body with triangular-shaped stamping on the front
doors and a pronounced belt line that runs parallel with the upper edge of the
bed. In the absence of any official clues, the rear end of the 2021 Santa Cruz
is more of a wild guess or wishful thinking. The author opted for taillights
inspired by the latest Sonata which seem to fit the rest of the pickup quite
well.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz will be built at
the company’s Montgomery, Alabama plant and is expected to offer two powertrain
options. The first is a 2.4-liter delivering 185 hp and 241 Nm of
torque, with the second a turbocharged 2.0-liter good for 235 hp and 352 Nm of torque.
